An online SEO survey by SurveyMonkey has provided some insight into the “pet peeves” of website visitors. 68% of those surveyed stated that the No. 1 reason users would block a website from their search results was the presence of too many ads on the site. The second most popular reason was poor quality content, with 60% of those surveyed naming that reason.
42% of those surveyed said that if a search rendered less than perfect results, they would leave the search, but 34% said that they would abandon that search and return to Google to create another search.
Only 26% of the respondents would block a website from their search because of errors in spelling and grammar.
Bottom Line: Most websites do not have an abundance of ads, but this survey gives a warning to webmasters to make call to action on the site prominent, but to fall short of annoying. Google Panda is not the only reason to create unique and compelling content for your site, as viewers find content that is uninteresting or poorly crafted to be a major turnoff. Is your bounce rate over 50%? If so, the above may be 2 factors to consider in improving your site’s performance.
Eric Van Cleave is a Partner in Zenergy Works, A Santa Rosa, California Based Local SEO Services, Website Development, and Online Marketing Firm.